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by\u00a0MARGARET KADIFA<\/a><\/strong>July 25, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Several](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_0437-scaled-e1753477763549-780x586.jpg\")
Six people were arrested Friday morning at immigration court in San Francisco \u2014 the most yet in one day from a single judge\u2019s docket, said Milli Atkinson, an immigration specialist with the Bar Association of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They included one man who, afraid of arrest, asked and was granted an order to self-deport that morning. Nevertheless, ICE officers swarmed around him outside the courtroom, ignoring two attorneys who repeatedly said the man no longer had an immigration case, was holding a self-removal order granted by the judge and would be leaving the country voluntarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All six men were in court that morning for routine hearings related to their asylum cases. About 20 people crowded into the courtroom Friday morning for these hearings, many of whom were families with young children. Every one of those families appeared to leave without being arrested. Every single adult in court without a child \u2014 six men \u2014 was arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n As has become<\/a> routine<\/a> in<\/a> San Francisco, in all six cases, the attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security moved to dismiss each case. This is a novel tactic<\/a> that the Trump administration is using to place asylum-seekers in a process called expedited removal, which fast-tracks them out of the country, often without the opportunity to see an immigration judge again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When one asylum-seeker asked why his case was now being dismissed, the Homeland Security attorney responded with what has also become a routine script: \u201cThe department has different priorities and policies right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI understand,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the five cases not including the man who decided to self-deport, the judge gave the asylum-seekers time to respond in writing. That should have allowed them to leave the courtroom and return home. Instead, as has also become routine, ICE officers swarmed them right outside the door. Many of the ICE officers Friday morning were masked. One wore a jacket that said \u201cPOLICE ICE\u201d in all capital letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the first two arrests, one asylum-seeker, from Venezuela, clearly frightened he would be detained, too, asked for voluntary removal to leave the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be arrested,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to go voluntarily.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Park responded that if he did leave voluntarily, he would lose his right to claim asylum. \u201cAre you sure you want to do that?\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I won\u2019t be arrested, and they will let me leave, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI cannot guarantee the department will not arrest you, sir,\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man chose to give up his asylum case anyway \u2014 the second time<\/a> Mission Local<\/em> has seen someone in court give up their asylum cases because they are afraid of arrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The man waited more than an hour for his order from the judge, showing that he had agreed to leave the country. ICE officers lurked outside the door the entire time. When he finally did walk out, holding the signed order, it was futile. Officers immediately arrested him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the second time in two days that ICE officers had arrested someone, despite unusual circumstances, as the Trump administration is pressuring ICE to reach an arrest quota of 3,000 <\/a>per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, in a nearby courtroom, also at 630 Sansome St., a different judge said that he was concerned about the possible mental impairment<\/a> of one man whose case the Department of Homeland Security moved to dismiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s obvious to me that there are competency issues,\u201d the judge, Patrick O\u2019Brien, said in court, citing the fact that the man had been muttering to himself throughout the morning and was unable to even say his own address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that case, the lawyer with the Department of Homeland Security offered to continue the case, essentially scheduling a new hearing rather than immediately moving to dismiss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Moments later, Mission Local<\/em> saw the man being arrested outside of the courtroom, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICE\u2019s presence outside of asylum hearings often disrupts the inside of the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mission Local has never seen ICE officers enter the courtroom. But, officers arrest people immediately outside, even if that person is with an attorney and is trying to get to the nearby room dedicated for attorneys to meet with clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, lawyers with the Bar Association of San Francisco\u2019s Attorney of the Day program, who give free legal advice to people at their hearings, are now huddling in the back of the courtroom. Their voices carry across the court, sometimes making it harder for the judge to oversee hearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, Judge Park dialed in remotely to court, leaving his clerk to enforce rules around silence. It was an impossible task. That day\u2019s Attorney of the Day refused to leave the courtroom with the men, because they would be arrested before she could speak to them, she told the clerk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco has immigration courts in two buildings, at 100 Montgomery St. and 630 Sansome St. In recent weeks, protesters<\/a> have gathered outside of 100 Montgomery St., trying to block ICE vans transporting immigrants who were arrested at that court to 630 Sansome St., which also has an ICE field office and is where most migrants in San Francisco are processed, before being sent to longer-term detention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But, at 630 Sansome St., ICE can arrest asylum-seekers in the hallway, and whisk them onto another floor to be processed, without the asylum-seekers ever having to leave the building\u2014and without the same sort of publicity that would come from an arrest at 100 Montgomery St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday\u2019s arrests by ICE were the most yet out of one judge\u2019s docket in San Francisco this year by\u00a0MARGARET KADIFAJuly 25, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) Six people were arrested Friday morning at immigration court in San Francisco \u2014 the most yet in one day from a single judge\u2019s docket, said Milli Atkinson,… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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